(Houston) – The Texas County Memorial Hospital (TCMH) board members discovered at their monthly meeting on Tuesday June 25 that they will be dealing with a $1.4 million hit to the hospital’s bottom line.

According to Wes Murray, TCMH CEO, it’s because Medicaid was not expanded by the state government this session, and TCMH will not be receiving any type of payment to offset the high number of Medicare and Medicaid patients they provide for.

In the past, TCMH had been receiving additional federal dollars due to the number of Medicaid patients seen at the hospital through a disproportionate share program known as DSH. In 2012 $1.2 million of DSH funds were taken from TCMH. The additional funds are going away under the Affordable Care Act.

The lack of DSH funds from the Affordable Care Act is projected to account for an additional $1.1 million hit to the hospitals bottom line this year.

Medicaid expansion in the state of Missouri was supposed to ease the blow of losing the DSH funds, but since state legislators did not pass Medicaid expansion legislation during the spring session, it will not be happening.

Murray shares that the sequestration of the federal government has also resulted in a two percent reduction in Medicare payments which reaches a total of approximately $300,000 annually. TCMH has already begun a monthly loss of around $116,600 because of these recent cuts.

To make up for some of the latest losses, there is a plan in place including the recent transition of the TCMH Fitness Center being handed over to the Houston Optimist Club, and other cuts in services are also currently being considered.